Finding Work That You Love

As a youngster I was encouraged to: “Find work that you love and do what makes you happy.” Ironically, this sage advice was usually delivered by the unhappy, unemployed, or paranoid (paranoid that the government was stealing their money, unhappy with the uncertainty of not working, or unemployed because keeping work in small remote economies is tough). It’s also fair to mention that this piece of advice was usually followed by: “Get a trade. You need a trade!” This was probably great advice a couple decades ago, or if you’re working in remote communities, but less relevant in today’s world. I loosely followed this advice through my younger years and I remember constantly being frustrated when work inevitably lost its fun. Thankfully, I eventually realized that work is work (if work was fun we’d just call it fun, then we’d be preoccupied with having work, not fun). Anyhow, I sympathize with today’s youngsters who are wrestling with this same conundrum – being told one thing, but experiencing a different reality in the real world. My words of advice today would be to: “get experience, work, do whatever you can, build a resume, go to school, and you’ll eventually find work that you love. Oh, and don’t look solely to work for happiness.”

Today I do find my work fun, but I couldn’t have got here without the experience I gained while plowing through boring jobs (like working the assembly line, tree planting, or digging outhouse pits). In order to find the job you love you need to start gaining experience now.